WASHINGTON — Nine high-ranking Army officers, including four generals, made critical errors in reporting the friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, but there was no criminal wrongdoing in the shooting of the former NFL player, the military concluded Monday.
Defense officials and a pair of reports on the 2004 incident released Monday, however, did not rule out criminal acts by those who provided misleading information while the military was investigating the killing. They said, though, that they believed there was no orchestrated cover-up.
Army and Defense Department investigators said officers looking into Tillman's death passed along misleading and inaccurate information and delayed reporting their belief that Tillman was killed by fellow Rangers.
Investigators recommended that the Army take action against the officers, but left any decisions on specific punishments to the Army. Possible steps could include demotions, dishonorable discharges, jail or letters of reprimand.
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Acting Army Secretary Peter Geren has asked Gen. William Wallace, who oversees training, to review the actions of the officers and to provide a progress report in 30 days.
The Army will take corrective action and hold people accountable, said Geren, who also issued an apology.
"We as an Army failed in our duty to the Tillman family, the duty we owe to all the families of our fallen soldiers: Give them the truth, the best we know it, as fast as we can," Geren told reporters at the Pentagon.
Investigators said there was no broad effort to conceal information. Though dozens of soldiers knew quickly that Tillman had been killed by his fellow troops on April 22, 2004, the Army said initially that he was killed by enemy gunfire when leading his team to help another group of ambushed soldiers. It was five weeks before his family was told the truth, a delay the Army has blamed on procedural mistakes.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on Monday that the mistakes by high-ranking Army officers were part of an "inexcusable cover-up." .
"It was a travesty that the events surrounding his death were covered up, if not distorted," McCain said.
Defense Department Acting Inspector General Thomas F. Gimble said Monday during a Pentagon briefing as the military released two reports, one by the Army Criminal Investigation Command and the other by the inspector general, that "there was never an attempt to cover up that we saw."
Tillman's death received worldwide attention because he had walked away from a huge contract with the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals to enlist after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The highest current ranking officer blamed in the incident is Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. Investigators said he was "accountable for the inaccurate and misleading assertions" contained in the papers recommending that Tillman get the Silver Star award.
Also criticized in the investigation were Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger, the now-retired three-star general who was in charge of Army special operations, as well as Tillman's regimental commander, now-Brig. Gen. James C. Nixon, who was a colonel at the time.
The inspector general investigation also recommended that the Army review its award of the Silver Star to Tillman, but Geren said it would stand.
